Thursday, November 24, 2005

CNET News reported Security experts have revealed details about a group of Chinese hackers who are suspected of launching intelligence-gathering attacks against the U.S. government.

The internet is a very good thing, but it can be used for bad things too. This is why it is so important that control of the root servers remain under the control of the US, and not taken over by the UN.

The hackers, believed to be based in the Chinese province of Guangdong, are thought to have stolen U.S. military secrets, including aviation specifications and flight-planning software. The U.S. government has coined the term "Titan Rain" to describe the hackers.

The author Tom Clancy is very in tune with the military; he also wrote a series Net Force, set in 2010 and charts the actions of Net Force: a federal agency set up to combat increasing crime on the internet. I think it is time to set up Net Force now (if it has not already been done).

"From the Redstone Arsenal, home to the Army Aviation and Missile Command, the attackers grabbed specs for the aviation mission-planning system for Army helicopters, as well as Falconview 3.2, the flight-planning software used by the Army and Air Force," Alan Paller, the director of the SANS Institute, said on Tuesday. The team is thought to consist of 20 hackers. Paller said that the Chinese government is the most likely recipient of the information they intercepted. "Of course, it's the government. Governments will pay anything for control of other governments' computers. All governments will pay anything. It's so much better than tapping a phone," Paller said at an event at the British Department of Trade and Industry.